GREENFIELD — Chief Jeff Rasche is planning to resign after four-plus years with the Greenfield Police Department, ending a career in Hancock County law enforcement that has spanned four decades.
Rasche plans to move to Florida to be closer to family members who need care, he said. He will pursue other career options there, which he said may or may not be in law enforcement.
“We’re all one big family,” Rasche said of Hancock County law enforcement. “It’s hard to say goodbye in a lot of ways, but it’s something I need to do.”
Sheriff Nick Gulling, who died in 2020, was the first person to hire Rasche, at the sheriff’s department, and is one of the role models Rasche tried to emulate during his time as chief.
“I tried not to let him down, but I did sometimes and I learned from those mistakes,” he said.
Rasche took over as GPD chief in December 2016 following the retirement of Chief John Jester, now a member of the Greenfield City Council. At the time, Rasche was a captain with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department and the head of its investigations unit. He had already served in local law enforcement for more than three decades.
“We see, in this career, the best and the worst of people,” Rasche said. “I remember Nick Gulling said once how rewarding it was for a police officer to show up at the scene of an accident… You have the ability to give that person comfort, give that person calmness, and tell them everything’s going to be OK.”
Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell, who hired Rasche to head the department, said he understands Rasche’s reason for leaving, but was still sorry to hear the unexpected news.
“I could see that Jeff had the potential to be an absolutely great leader,” Fewell said. “He’s been a good chief, he’s an excellent person, and he’s been great for the department. I hate to see him go.”
Rasche does not yet have a definitive departure date, but the city will soon need to begin the process of hiring a new police chief.
Rasche first joined the sheriff’s department as a dispatcher in 1984 and became a full-time deputy in 1988. He worked as a detective from 1990 to 1996 before briefly leaving law enforcement for a career in the private sector; he returned in 2000 and stayed with the sheriff’s department until he was appointed as Greenfield’s chief. He also attended the elite FBI National Academy.
Hancock County Sheriff Brad Burkhart worked with Rasche for many years when they were both employed at the sheriff’s department.
“We’ve been friends forever,” Burkhart said. “You couldn’t ask for a better guy — a good investigator, a good chief. He was one of my groomsmen in my wedding.”
Burkhart said as sheriff, he was able to work closely with Rasche’s department.
“I think we communicated well,” Burkhart said. “Him coming from the sheriff’s department, he always had communication; we always worked well together.”
“I never did think he looked good in blue, though,” he added, referring to Rasche’s change of uniforms when he became chief. “I always thought he looked better in brown.”
In the past year, some of the police department’s most prominent struggles have not been with crime. Like every other aspect of life, policing has had to adapt to the era of COVID-19. Officers had to observe social distancing and wear masks, which made some interactions with the public more difficult.
Rasche suffered his own bout with the illness as well. After testing positive in November, Rasche’s symptoms lingered for longer than he was expecting, draining his energy and requiring him to wear a heart monitor for a time.
Any leadership position, Rasche said, has unexpected complications, and COVID-19 was a challenging one. He said he has no regrets, however, about the way his career has unfolded.
Rasche has been willing to introduce new technologies to the police department’s work. The GPD began using body cameras for the first time during his tenure, an addition Rasche said would provide an additional layer of both accountability and protection to his officers. The department also began a partnership with Amazon’s Ring camera network, which it has used to investigate robbery and arson cases.
Many things about policing have changed during his time in the profession because of new technology, Rasche said, including the types of crime he sees. Where the county once saw more violent crimes, like bank robberies, there are now more instances of cyber crime, which is harder to trace. Judges, juries and prosecutors also expect to see new forms of evidence, like GPS tracking, that can be expensive for a police department.
“If you don’t keep up with that and you don’t have that for a jury, you’re not going to win a case,” he said.
Rasche said the difficulties of a career in law enforcement were well-described by broadcaster Paul Harvey when he said in a radio piece: “The policeman must be a minister, a social worker, a diplomat, a tough guy and a gentleman.”
“You have to be clergy at times; you have to be a psychologist at times,” Rasche said. “…You have to make a split-second decision that’s going to be talked about for months or even for years.”
In recent years, Rasche has advocated for pay raises for officers. Like Burkhart, he has said it can be difficult to recruit and retain employees when the salary is lower than that in surrounding communities. He’s also said public perception of the police can be a recruiting challenge, with recent protests opposing police brutality and calls to “defund the police” — a rallying cry of some activists that calls for cutting law enforcement funding and spending more on poverty prevention and other areas — creating increasingly negative associations with the profession.
Rasche said the public environment for officers currently starting their careers, and those who will come after him, will be different than it was when he started out.
“Today’s society expects so much more from law enforcement, and I don’t know how much more law enforcement can give… It worries me a little bit, and I’ll be long gone, but I pray for their safety, and that they’ll come home every night,” he said.
Across his time with the police and the sheriff’s department, Rasche said he’s proudest of his ability to mentor younger officers and act as a role model.
“I’ve learned so much from the people who served before me,” Rasche said. “…One day you wake up and then you’re one of those people that people look up to.”
